The last 12 months have been a strange and confusing time in tech, especially for the giants housed mostly in Silicon Valley.

This is the year that the default public attitude to tech firms such as Google and Facebook became one of suspicion, resulting in greater scrutiny from politicians and media.

Business Insider has captured something of the changing spirit with a list of the 17 most jaw-dropping quotes from 2018.

The list is, perhaps unsurprisingly, jointly dominated by Facebook executives and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, both of whom had a trying year under the spotlight. Other figures include Steve Jobs, after the Apple cofounder's daughter Lisa wrote a poetic and devastating memoir which showed her father in a new light.

"You're getting nothing."

It's an open secret that Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was not only a visionary but an exceptionally difficult man.

A memoir published this year by his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, lends further nuanced depth to that image and examines their often frosty relationship.

In one heartbreaking extract, told for the first time, Brennan-Jobs recalled that her father would replace every Porsche as soon as it got a scratch. She asked whether she could have one once he replaced it.

"Funding secured."

Elon Musk's tweeting landed him in more than one scrape this year.
Francois Mori / Associated Press

Elon Musk's Twitter activity prompted great scrutiny of the Tesla CEO this year, but the tweet that bit back hardest was his infamous claim that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private.

The full tweet appeared to contain a marijuana reference. "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420," he wrote. "Funding secured."

Ultimately, the tweet led to Musk being slapped with a $20 million fine from the SEC after it became apparent that funding had not in fact been secured. Under the terms of the settlement, Musk also had to step down as chairman of Tesla.

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"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet."

Elon Musk and Grimes at the 2018 Met
Getty Images

A surprising twist in the tale of Elon Musk's "funding secured" debacle was when rapper Azealia Banks weighed in with her account of events.

Banks claimed that after being invited to Musk's LA home to collaborate with Grimes, who was in a relationship with Musk at the time (it is unclear whether they are still a couple), she saw him scrambling for investors.

"They bring me out there on the premise that we would hang and make music," Banks told Business Insider in a DM. "But his dumbass kept tweeting and tucked his dick in between his ass cheeks once shit hit the fan.

"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet. He was stressed and red in the face."

In two tweets Trump declared: "The Democrats are trying to belittle the concept of a Wall, calling it old fashioned. The fact is there is nothing else's that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years. It's like the wheel, there is nothing better.

"I know tech better than anyone, & technology .....on a Border is only effective in conjunction with a Wall. Properly designed and built Walls work, and the Democrats are lying when they say they don't. In Israel the Wall is 99.9% successful. Will not be any different on our Southern Border! Hundreds of $Billions saved!"

"I hope I am able to assist as a cat."

Feeling, perhaps, that two Congressional appearances were enough, Zuckerberg snubbed similar grillings from other countries. He declined to appear in November before a group of representatives from nine countries hosted in Westminster.

Allen admitted he did not, and she explained it was a Flemish idiom meaning to not show up.

"I hope I am able to assist as a cat," Allen responded.

"No, no, you are sitting next to the cat," Lijnen explained.

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"I choose to go to the moon, with artists."

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa speaks after SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced him as the person who would be the first private passenger on a trip around the moon, Monday, Sept. 17, 2018.Chris Carlson/AP Photo

"We have taken down another great icon."

This year the rise and fall of disgraced blood-analysis startup Theranos was deliciously chronicled in the book "Bad Blood."

But despite the fact that the SEC went on to charge Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes with fraud, some of its supporters remained loyal to the end.

Venture capital investor Tim Draper defended Holmes in an interview with CNBC. He also wore a Bitcoin-patterned tie.

"I feel that we have taken down another great icon," he said. "This woman came to me when she was 19 years old and she said I'm going to transform health care as we know it and she got bullied into submission. And this is not what America is made of."

"So we connect more people," Boz wrote. "That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people."

Bosworth himself claimed in a statement that he didn't agree with the memo when he wrote, but rather he wanted to "surface issues" he felt warranted more discussion.

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"I’ll be holding your hands with your dying ­business like in a hospice."

Campbell Brown is Facebook's new head of news.
Campbell Brown / Facebook

Facebook's head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, detonated a media bomb after reportedly telling news organisations that they'd end up "in a hospice" if they didn't work with the social and ads giant.

Brown met with Australian news organisations and plugged the benefits of working with Facebook, but then shocked executives by saying: "We will help you revitalise journalism … in a few years the ­reverse looks like I'll be holding your hands with your dying ­business like in a hospice."

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"I f---ing hope he sues me."

AP

Musk got in hot water after he accused British rescue diver Vernon Unsworth of being a pedophile, after Unsworth criticised Musk's idea of rescuing the 12 boys who became stranded in a Thai cave using a miniature submarine.